Joy will be demonstrating a watercolour painting style that is playfully abstract, light, and airy to match the subject matter. Inspiration for the painting will be brightly coloured flowers in a garden.

Printmaking and drawing techniques using natural objects from the garden such as flowers, grass, and stems will also be incorporated into the composition.

The dolls are back! They wax and wane in my life and I’m enjoying their reemergence in my art. The recent ones are part of my ongoing ‘Treasure Keeper Series’ which are about sorting though my memories and then my feelings about the memories. I made a companion piece for this doll and not until this morning did I realize I had created Spring and Autumn. There’s more to explore with theses two latest dolls (paintings to create) but for now here’s where I’m at; one doll complete, the other 99% done and two small paintings to go.

PS: Update. These figures are fluid in nature. The idea of spring and autumn wasn’t quite accurate. Rather it is winged and rooted that is the more accurate sentiment behind the two companion pieces.

A recently finished fibre art doll work called “Woven In’ led me to create a companion painting. I started by projecting the shadow of the fibre art piece onto a canvas and tracing the image. Then I worked into the painting intuitively to see what would emerge. The finished painting is called “Night Garden” and was a delight and a surprise to me! Both pieces are my thoughts and feelings about my place in a family that is both blessed and burdened by loved ones struggling with a mental disorder. Blessing because they are two of the most gentle, sensitive, interesting people I know and they are a gift in my life. Conversations with them are like spending time in a night garden where the beauty is subtle and life here is more about feeling than appearances.

This year for Pentecost in the foyer of the church we set up a display of doves flying in a tree with green leaves and a banner of flames in the back. Buoyant, alive, playful… I felt the arrangement reflected the spirit of the day. The shadows added another dimension to the grouping.

How do you teach colour theory to 3 to 4 year olds? This was a recent challenge of mine and I came up with the idea of a 6 segmented caterpillar. First the students traced an oval shape 6 times and then painted in the primary colours. Colour, then skip a shape, colour, skip… For the secondary colours they put two primaries on a piece of sponge and then twirled the sponge inside the shape to make the secondary colour; Y+B=G, Y+R=O, and B+R=P. They loved it! This image is a montage of the works into one.

Banners are filling up at Place des Arts! Each person creates their own tag (ink and stick, print, or collage) and then they are added to the community banners. It’s a way to put into visual form Place des Art’s belief that we inspire the artist in everyone! The closeup is a work of art by a preschool student. the artworks created by the youngest students are so full of energy and vitality.